Backing-up your itunes files and artwork

[il-bartman]

Hi guys,
I've recently transferred my cd collection on to itunes (on an external lacie drive). I thought it wise to back up my back up and i did this on the lacie rugged.
I dragged all my files across.
I noticed afterwards that only the artwork i had manually copied into itunes (i.e. not sought through 'get album artwork' in itunes) transferred when I clicked on the album file.
Anyone else experienced this?
Is there anything I can do?
Ta

 

[mrwizardno2]

Hi guys,
I've recently transferred my cd collection on to itunes (on an external lacie drive). I thought it wise to back up my back up and i did this on the lacie rugged.
I dragged all my files across.
I noticed afterwards that only the artwork i had manually copied into itunes (i.e. not sought through 'get album artwork' in itunes) transferred when I clicked on the album file.
Anyone else experienced this?
Is there anything I can do?
Ta

I've noticed this before, as well. When you manually copy the artwork, I think it embeds it in the actual MP3's ID3 tag. When iTunes "finds" it from the net, it puts it in your library folder under artwork (or something of the like).

I went through and manually added a bunch of album art one night, had iTunes screw up and lose my library - only to reimport it later and discover only the ones I had manually put album art into still had it.

I don't really have a suggestion as to what you can do other than try backing up that folder with all the artwork in it? Or maybe going through and manually embedding the artwork in the ID3 (PITA!!!!)

 

[il-bartman]

I've noticed this before, as well. When you manually copy the artwork, I think it embeds it in the actual MP3's ID3 tag. When iTunes "finds" it from the net, it puts it in your library folder under artwork (or something of the like).

I went through and manually added a bunch of album art one night, had iTunes screw up and lose my library - only to reimport it later and discover only the ones I had manually put album art into still had it.

I don't really have a suggestion as to what you can do other than try backing up that folder with all the artwork in it? Or maybe going through and manually embedding the artwork in the ID3 (PITA!!!!)

Thanks for your reply. You know what's coming next ...........? Do you now the best way of doing that?
Thanks again.

 

[DarkHeraldMage]

Search here for a script with "embed" in the title. I think it's simply called "embed artwork" but I'm not at my laptop right now to confirm. I use it and love it. Once you have iTunes fetch the artwork, you select the tracks and run the applescript and it embeds in the file instead of a folder somewhere. Very useful for backing up your music and reimporting at a later date.